Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Great Culling FLUORIDE in Our Water

WASHINGTON - Carbonated soda can have an effect on teeth similar to the effect of illegal drugs, according to a study published in the clinical journal General Dentistry.

"Dental erosion lesions associated with diet soda could demonstrate similar clinical features and characteristics of destruction in the hard dental tissues as those observed in patients who abuse methamphetamine and crack cocaine," the study says. "The only difference is the degree of dentin lesion discoloration, which is related to the sugar/acid interaction in the medium."

The study compared drug users to a diet soda user. This photo depicts how the mouth of a meth user compared to a soda user. (Courtesy of the Academy of General Dentistry)

Toothpaste: “WARNING: Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek PROFESSIONAL HELP or contact a POISON CONTROL center immediately.”

A crushing body of evidence and the raised eyebrow of the FDA incriminate Fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash as a toxic drug “not fit for human consumption.”

For decades fluoride’s been marketed as obligatory for oral hygiene. It’s in most toothpastes and mouthwashes while parents are aggressively encouraged to give their kids fluoride treatments. After all, 9 out of 10 ‘Experts’ can’t be wrong.Cue cynicism.

Historically, our leaders have a dreadful track record acknowledging health risks associated with certain corporate chemicals, especially when its agencies have already determined these products as “safe”. Sad how times change, but truth does not. It’s taken government 60 years to admit American’s have been overexposed to this harmful chemical though several studies by the National Toxicology Program show fluoride causes bone cancer, particularly in young men. This jive’s with studies documenting it causes cellular mutations associated with cancer. Drinking Fluoridated water causes damage to the brain and kidneys, compromises the pineal gland, trashes immunity, lowers IQ, and in Washington DC specifically, they determined people drinking only one quart from their public water supply each day ingestmore than 1,428 times the safe dose of fluoride which explains the current political zeitgeist of DC.

In 1950, Procter and Gamble tossed three million dollars at IU Bloomington bio-chemists to produce contrive a cavity-preventing prototype. They ran clinical trials on 1,500 innocent children and 400 naïve adults. After testing, a good half of the participants showed substantial decrease in dental caries viola, Crest was invented. Back in the 40s, our ‘scholarly’ leaders encouraged municipal water authorities to add fluoride to community’s drinking water. According to the CDC approximately 70 percent of the U.S. population ingests fluoride through drinking water; in Europe only 10 percent.

In an encouraging reversal, Fox reported the EPA will lower the maximum amount of fluoride in drinking water because of growing evidence supporting fluoride’s snarky effects to children’s temples. In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences reported dental fluorosis, caused by too much fluoride puts children at risk of developing breakdown of tooth enamel, discoloration and pitting. In addition, another study found excessive ingested fluoride increases the risk of bone fractures and abnormalities.

That’s why I lovingly badger you to be vigilant, due diligence and admit “experts” are often dead wrong. Revisit your dental hygiene ritual, read labels, and look for xylitol on the label.

Advocates, opponents argue whether

to keep fluoride in drinking water

For Allison Whyte, getting fluoride out of drinking water is a personal matter.

The 53-year-old's two daughters developed fluorosis - a mottling of the teeth caused by excessive fluoride - when they were 10 and 12 years old.

Her solution: get rid of the controversial chemical.

"I got Culligan water, I didn't have fluoride treatments at the dentist, I didn't have fluoride toothpaste, there was no fluoride at all," said Whyte, one of 26 people who stepped to the microphone to speak at a public meeting about fluoride in local drinking water Tuesday at Sarnia city hall.

Jimmy Wray obituary

Jimmy Wray campaigned against fluoridation of the public water supply, which he believed amounted to mass medication. Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Jimmy Wray, who has died at 78, emerged from the colourful tapestry of Glasgow politics to become a Labour MP between 1987 and 2005. A man of the left, Wray was also a lifelong entrepreneur and close friend of the boxing fraternity. One of his signal contributions was to eclipse the bid by the Militant Tendency to gain the parliamentary foothold in Scotland to which it aspired. Militant had long targeted the seat of Glasgow Provan, which included the huge Easterhouse estate, in anticipation of Hugh Brown retiring as MP.

When the selection contest arose in 1985, it was widely expected that the Militant candidate, Jim Cameron, would be selected to succeed him. However Militant had reckoned without Wray's organisational skills, honed over two bruising decades as a Glasgow councillor. He prevailed by one vote and Militant were soon out of the Labour party.

However, his longest-running political campaign was against fluoridation of the public water supply, a cause that he pursued with great tenacity both as a councillor and then at Westminster. Wray believed that fluoridation amounted to mass medication without the consent of the people and questioned the dental heath benefits attributed to it.

He promoted the case pursued in the name of Catherine McColl, a Glasgow grandmother who went to the court of session in order to challenge the right of Strathclyde regional council to introduce fluoride into the water supply. It was at the time the longest hearing in Scottish legal history and Lord Jauncey's eventual ruling in 1983 was in McColl's favour.

At Westminster, Wray used his long experience of the subject to resist efforts by the Labour government to reduce local authorities' discretion to prevent fluoridation. He claimed that inner London, which never had fluoride in its water supply, had the best dental health record in the country while attributing the abysmal dental statistics in his own constituency to poverty rather than the absence of fluoride...

(FoxNews.com) — Heavy consumption of diet soda can damage teeth as badly as methamphetamine or crack cocaine, a new study contends.
“You look at it side-to-side with ‘meth mouth’ or ‘coke mouth,’ it is startling to see the intensity and extent of damage more or less the same,” said Dr. Mohamed Bassiouny, a professor of restorative dentistry at the Temple University School of Dentistry in Philadelphia.
Methamphetamine, crack cocaine and soda — sweetened or not — are all highly acidic and can cause similar dental problems, Bassiouny said in a study published recently in the journal General Dentistry, according to FoxNews.com.

That water fluoridation is good for the population in general isn’t the question. It is medicine in the water to treat a disease. Regardless of the percentage of the population that has this disease, to force even one person who doesn’t have the disease to ingest the medication is, or at least ought to be, unconstitutional.

You can buy bottled water for your kids. You can go to the drugstore and buy the fluoride salt that is recommended for that water and put it in their water. To force me to take your kid’s medication is an outrage.

If 51 percent of the population had some disease, would you vote to have everyone take their medication simply because it is more convenient for that 51 percent than it would be to have them take a pill every day?

We do not live in a democracy where the majority rules. We live in a constitutional republic where the will of the majority is subject to the restraints imposed by our constitution. It should also protect me from taking your child’s medicine.

USA - Portland Fluoridation Measure 26-151 - George Alejos

Friday, May 17, 2013

Your Drinking Water Contains A Hazardous Waste-Fluoride!

UK - Southampton Echo editor Ian Murray writes.

Shame Ian hasn't attended any of our meetings or read the letters sent in, if he had I'm sure common sense would say if just some of the negative things were true better to err on the side of safety.
Not put Fluorosilicic acid in and use the money to provide targeted treatment on those children who need it.

NEW YORK, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Industrial-grade fluoride chemicals added to US public water supplies contain arsenic that the EPA classifies as a human carcinogen. Switching to low-arsenic pharmaceutical-grade fluoride will save society $1 billion to $14 billion annually, according to research published in Environmental Science & Policy, led by former EPA senior scientists who are experts in chemical risk assessment, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
Although never studied for safety or efficacy, hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFSA) is added to public water supplies as a purported cavity preventive. The industry-funded group that regulates water additives, NSF International, allows several toxins in HFSA, including arsenic.
The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to determine the level of certain contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. These health goals, based solely on possible health risks and exposure over a lifetime with an adequate margin of safety, are called maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG). The MCLG for arsenic is zero. The EPA also sets an enforceable maximum contaminant level (MCL), but concedes this level will not prevent cancers.
Senior researchers, Drs. William Hirzy and Robert Carton , write, "Arsenic levels in this HFSA product vary substantially but are typically about 30-35 mg/kg." These levels would qualify it as toxic hazardous waste if not for a legal loophole because it is sold to fluoridate water. The study found HFSA raised the arsenic level of finished or tap water by anywhere from 0.078 to 0.43 parts per billion (ppb).
Ninety percent of arsenic showing up in tap water comes from fluoridation chemicals, according to a study in the American Water Works Association publication, Opflow, led by Dr. Cheng-nan Weng.
Hirzy and Carton found that industrial-grade HFSA contains from 100 to 500 times more arsenic than pharmaceutical grade sodium fluoride (NaF).
Using EPA's calculation methods, HFSA would cause from 320 to 1800 arsenic-induced cancers per year. They calculated these cancers would cost society $1 billion to $6 billion per year.
The researchers conclude: "Our analysis shows that, if local governments that currently add HFSA to their drinking water wish to continue delivering fluoride to their citizens and at the same time reduce the number of lung and bladder cancers among their citizens, they could do so with a significant net benefit to society by switching to USP NaF [pharmaceutical grade Sodium Fluoride] for fluoridation."
Paul Connett , PhD, FAN Director says, "This study provides additional scientific evidence that fluoridation should be stopped, as the purported benefits no longer outweigh the risks."
Reference: Hirzy JW, Carton RJ, Bonanni CD, Montanero CM, Michael F. Nagle MF. 2013. Comparison of hydrofluorosilicic acid and pharmaceutical sodium fluoride as fluoridating agents—A cost–benefit analysis. Environmental Science & Policy 29: 81-86 (May).
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000087

Psychotherapist Susan Smith is ‘not keen on traditional medicine’, she says. So she decided to treat her sluggish gut with magnesium supplements.

Within a few weeks, says the 55-year-old from Bromley, Kent, she felt noticeably stronger and more energetic. Her eyes — and sinuses — are now clearer, and she goes to the loo regularly.

Of course any persistent change in bowel habits should be investigated by a doctor. But for minor complaints, could this ‘alternative’ treatment really help?

Magnesium is a ‘very good bowel cleanser’, says Professor Jon Shaffer, a gastroenterologist with a special interest in nutrition at Salford Royal hospital. As we digest magnesium, it attracts fluid to the intestine. This means stools can be passed more easily and relaxes the stomach muscles, which aids evacuation.

‘Magnesium can be taken orally as a very effective laxative, and it’s far less harmful than anything over the counter, which tends to stretch the colon,’ says Professor Shaffer.

Apart from helping with bowel health, magnesium is critical to a host of vital processes in the body. It helps keep heart rhythm steady, and is vital for healthy bones and teeth, muscle function, the nervous system and the production of energy. It also has an impact on psychological health.....

....The figures are even worse for young people, particularly young women. A staggering 51 per cent of girls aged 11 to 18 are thought to have an inadequate intake, compared with 28 per cent of boys.

Experts say our increased consumption of processed food, such as commercially-prepared cakes, is to blame for our magnesium deficiency, as these are low in magnesium-rich ingredients.

Excess salt, coffee and alcohol can also lower our magnesium levels, according to a review of international research by the University of Maryland Medical Centre, because they make us need the loo more and so act as a magnesium ‘diuretic’.

City dwellers may be more likely to have low magnesium levels because tap water is treated with chlorine and fluoride, which deplete the magnesium in it.

Deficiencies are also more common among women who have very heavy periods.

And our ever more hectic lives don’t help either, as stress, anxiety and depression are known to actively deplete magnesium.

Low magnesium is a particular worry for bone health. It helps our bodies absorb vitamin D (which we don’t get enough of anyway).

HAF campaigner Professor Stephen Peckham said legal advice was now being sought into whether Public Health England (PHE) had to carry through the plans..........

"PHE did not comment on a legal challenge but said it was assuming responsibility for the implementation process of the water fluoridation scheme in Southampton and parts of southwest Hampshire area.A spokesman said: “The approach used will be consistent with other water fluoridation schemes across the country, all of which will be managed by PHE. The local implementation process is ongoing and PHE will shortly start discussions with Southern Water.“The technical feasibility study which was carried out before the 2008 consultation is being updated by Southern Water."“The final report is not yet completed.”

UK Daily Echo

Demonstrators protest against fluoride in water

WAVING placards and shouting their slogans, more than a hundred people made their message loud and clear: no to water fluoridation.

Demonstrators were gathering outside the Guildhall Square inSouthampton this afternoon as part of their long running battle against plans to add the chemical to drinking water in Southampton, Eastleigh,Totton, Netley and Rownhams.

But Hampshire Against Fluoridation are calling for the proposed scheme - aimed at improving dental health - to be scrapped. They believe it will actually cause more dental problems and health risks.

Southampton Anti Fluoride Demo May 11 2013

Published on 10 May 2013
A great talk encompassing the subject of fluoridation of our water, within the broader subject of who cares for your health and well being. Robert Verkerk, Alliance for Natural Health,(anh-eur) and Joy Warren, West Midlands against Fluoride (WMAF) present evidence of the harm caused by fluoridation to all of us over many years. They have campaigned tirelessly at a local level, right through to the European Parliament. We can make better decisions about who is allowed to medicate us with good information.

Fluoride campaigns approach $1 million: Portland City Hall Roundup

Former Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard worked behind the scenes with fluoride advocates leading up to a September 2012 City Council vote approving fluoride. But opponents gathered enough signatures to push the issue to the ballot -- and prompt what's become a nearly $1 million campaign.Faith Cathcart/The Oregonian

Last Gulp for Hamilton Fluoride

As its tribunal date fast approaches, Hamilton City Council faces little choice but to turn off the tap and end its controversial practice of drinking water fluoridation once and for all.

With public opinion tilting heavily against addition of chemical fluoride (hydrofluorosilicic acid) to city water, mounting concerns in the scientific and medical communities, and serious ethical questions, there is scant justification left for Hamilton to continue forced mass medication of the city’s population.

In response to its recent month-long campaign for public input, the tribunal received an unprecedented 1,560 submissions. Of those, 1,386 (89 per cent) oppose fluoridation – an overwhelming majority that erases all doubt as to where residents stand.

An examination of submissions reveals broad opposition, ranging from ordinary householders and parents to those identified with dental and orthodontic practices, the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, NZ Health Trust, NZ Journal of Natural Medicine, naturopathic and general health practices, and organisations from Grey Power and Soil and Health to the Waikato Clinical School....

Friday, May 10, 2013

Brian Stanley launches Bill to stop fluoridation of public water

Junior Health Minister Alex White has answered the 27 Questions on fluoride, put to him by Hot Press. Will he want to stand over the answers in 10 years’ time?

Niall Stokes, 09 May 2013

And so we finally have the answers. Those who have been following our investigation into the mandatory fluoridation of the water supply in Ireland will be intrigued to see what the Minister with responsibility for fluoridation policy, Alex White, has to say in response to the 27 detailed questions put to him in these pages three issues ago.

In the spirit of fairness, we have decided to print the answers in full, without editorial intervention. In recent months, we have given a huge amount of space to the arguments against fluoride. Its defendants are entitled to have their case heard too.

Upfront, it has to be stated that – spread over six pages of the magazine – for the uninvolved it does not exactly make riveting reading. A lot of what is being said is technical. It would be unfair to blame that on the Minister or his advisers in the department – or indeed the ‘expert body’ on fluoride, whose ideology undoubtedly informs the answers. When it comes to detailed issues of public policy, more often than not, there is a lot of verbiage to wade through, in order to understand what the hell is going on and why................

...................Health is a huge brief. The scope for things going wrong is, it has to be acknowledged, wide. But to say that the performance of the Department of Health has not been good over the years is to understate it. I hope that their defence of the fluoridation of the water supply does not become something that in the future they – or their successors – will come to very seriously regret.

UK - Daily Echo

Thursday, May 09, 2013

UK Southampton - DON'T FORGET SUPPORT DEMO

BBC will be there to film demo at 12.30 so come along to support us and tell as many people as you can. If one tenth of those who contacted HAF registering their anger at the SHA and the new body Public Health England came along, the Guildhall square would be crowded out.

Local public-policy debates aren’t usually hot tickets, but this one is so packed that organizers had to call the fire marshal for permission to admit a beyond-capacity crowd. Every seat is taken, and people are sitting on the gym floor.

Sentiment in the room is running heavily against fluoride. While debate organizers warn against audience outbursts (“you won’t be asked to leave, you will be removed”), on several occasions dentist and fluoride backer Mike Plunkett is hissed like a silent-movie villain.

At the end of Clean Water Portland’s closing statement, an overwhelming majority of those assembled erupt in applause (no such luck for Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland’s final speech), and a ragged chant of “No fluoride!” bubbles up from the back of the hall.

Fluoride supporters may have the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the vast majority of the medical profession on their side, but—tonight at least—the advantage in naked passion lies with the opposition.

It’s as if an Occupy protest, a talk on artisanal cheesemaking, and a Tea Party rally were all accidentally booked at the same hotel ballroom. It’s hard to imagine such a diverse group all voting the same way on anything. But fluoridation has always seemed to grab people in a way unlike any other issue.

FIGHTING CHEMICALS: Anti-fluoridation protestors at the east end of the Burnside Bridge.

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2013 — You may be using fluoride-enhanced toothpaste as well as drinking water with fluoride added to it.
Teeth and Bad Thyroid
Fluoride is an environmental waste product, and fluorine is the most highly reactive element in the entire periodic table. Read your toothpaste warning. It says “do not consume; if you do, call Poison Control immediately.” Why? Because fluoride is toxic. A dose of fluoride from five grams of sodium fluoride can kill and adult, and in lower doses it causes fluorosis, which weakens and deforms bones, causes dental discoloration, damages kidneys, and has been clearly correlated with cognitive damage (it drops your IQ)....
....Fluoride is not an essential element for human physiology. It should not be poured into city drinking water. It should be more tightly controlled, more than placing a warning to call the Poison Control Center on tubes of toothpaste.
Adding fluoride to anything that is ingested by humans is bad science and very poor public health.
—
Dr Peter Lind practices metabolic and neurologic chiropractic in his wellness clinic in Salem, Oregon. USA. He is the author of 5 books on health, one novel, and hundreds of wellness articles. His clinical specialty is in physical, nutritional, and emotional stress.

Ed Asner: "Fluoride Should Be a Choice, Not a Mandate"

In this short PSA, Ed Asner explains why he opposes water fluoridation. According to Asner, "common sense and common decency" suggest that, no matter how much a dentist or doctor might like a given medicine, in this case fluoride, they have no right to force it on an entire community, including those who don't want it and those who are particularly vulnerable to harm. For more information on fluoride, see: http://www.fluoridealert.org

Monday, May 06, 2013

UK - Southampton - Echo

Sunday, May 05, 2013

.....The six ways we can absorb toxins from water is through drinking it, cooking with it, buying canned products that contain it, and bathing, showering and swimming in it. If our primary source of water is from the tap, we are absorbing toxins with it. All water from public works systems contains contaminants such as parasites, viruses, herbicides, pesticides, cyanides, asbestos, and industrial chemicals.

Even residues from pesticides used decades ago may still be present in the water system today. This polluted water is then treated with chlorine, fluoride, carbon, lime, phosphates, soda, ash, and aluminum sulfate to "purify" it, and sent through zinc and cadmium pipe joints and copper pipes to our homes.

It is ironic that we use additional chemicals to combat the chemicals and pollutants that are already in the water. It is like adding insult to injury.

To be precise, forty-seven "insults" in all are added to our water to disinfect, fluoridate, soften, coagulate, chlorinate, oxidate, condition, neutralize, and control the odor and color of it. Among these chemicals are chlorine and fluoride. Chlorine, which can either be absorbed or ingested, leeches potassium and sodium from the body causing an electrolyte depletion.

The salts used to fluoridate our nation's water supply, sodium fluoride and florosamicic acid, are industrial by-products that are not found in nature. They are so toxic that they are used in rat poison. We can get all the natural fluorine we need from fish, bones, quince and raw goats milk.

The only way we can remove fluorine from our water is to use reverse osmosis - distillation or activated aluminium filtration. Many people drink distilled water because it doesn't contain fluoride; however, it can also be detrimental to the health if used long- term because it too leeches minerals from the body. Nevertheless, experts agree that water lacking some of its original nutrients is still superior to water laden with chemicals and toxins......

The Last Straw - A Musical Parody in the Key of F No!

Ireland - The Girl Against Fluoride

The
Girl Against Fluoride

The Girl Against
Fluoride campaign was createdinAugust of 2012. Prior
to this date, members of a fluoride free campaign in the Republic of
Ireland were touring around Ireland giving public talks about the
risk of water fluoridation to health and the environment. There was
little or no response after these public talks. It was time to
radically change the approach.

The Girl Against
Fluoride campaign is a PR campaign which aims to raise as awareness
about fluoride on a nationwide scale. Aisling FitzGibbon who is also
known as The Girl Against Fluoride kicked off the campaign last
August with a publicity stunt at a local Kerry airport. Aisling
bravely stripped to knickers and a t-shirt which had printed text:
“Irish water contains toxic industrial waste” and the famous “Get
the F out” symbol similar to the universal stop sign. When the
publicity photos were published online there was an amazing response
from the public. From that point The Girl Against Fluoride has grown
from strength to strength. The campaign has gained support all over
Ireland and beyond.

Irish musicians,
celebrities and politicians are beginning to support the campaign.
The list includes Christy Moore, Paddy Casey, Mundy, Senator David
Norris, Luke Ming Flanagan TD and Paolo Tullio. Paddy Casey a well
known Irish singer/song writer is currently working on a song for the
campaign. Some of the members of The Girl Against Fluoride campaign
are working on a documentary about the history of water fluoridation
in Ireland, spanning to the current day campaign. There will be a
premier of the documentary which will be held in an independent
cinema in Dublin. The documentary will also be released for free
online and will be aired in towns across Ireland.

One of the reasons
why this campaign is gaining so much support is because it has taken
a creative, fun and light hearted approach to an incredibly serious
and negative issue. Ireland is the only country in the EU with a
policy of mandatory water fluoridation. 98 % of Europe have banned,
stopped or rejected water fluoridation. In Ireland when local
authorities vote to remove fluoride there are unable to stop due to
the national legislation in place. One of the strongest aspects of
The Girl Against Fluoride campaign is that Aisling FitzGibbon is
taking a High Court case against the Irish State to have the policy
of mandatory water fluoridation overturned.

Aisling has a legal
team representing her on a pro bono basis which is very lucky as the
court costs can run into the 100,000s. We have to raise 30,000 euro
minimum to cover basic costs for the legal team and to fly in a
number expert witnesses to testify in the court case. We hope that as
many people as possible will donate to this cause which is sure to
end fluoridation in Ireland forever.

The
key to ending water fluoridation here in Ireland and indeed the rest
of the other fluoridated countries is awareness. It is our goal to
change public opinion about fluoride and to get people to begin to
question the logic of adding untested, unlicensed chemicals to
everyone’s water supply in the guise of protecting dental health.
The overwhelming consensus by dental researchers is that fluoride’s
primary effect is topical, not systemic. The leading promoters of
fluoride in the US, The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) stated in
1999 that fluorides actions are primarily topical for both adults and
children. This was concurred by the National Research Council (2006)
stating that “the major anticaries benefit of fluoride is topical
and not systemic”. To review how fluoride works topically and how
scientists came to disprove the systemic theory see
www.fluoridealert.org

Nobel Prize
Winner in Medicine and Physiology, Dr Arvid Carlsson, stated that
water fluoridation “goes against all laws of modern
pharmacology…you cannot give everyone the same dose”.

I believe that The
Girl Against Fluoride campaign will help all other fluoride free
campaigns around the world. When we succeed in ending water
fluoridation in Ireland, there will be a ripple effect that will span
across the globe impacting on decisions to stop or to never introduce
fluoride to the public water supply.

UK - Meeting in Southampton

PRESS RELEASE May 2013

Public meeting and demonstration against fluoridation with “The Girl Against Fluoride” from Ireland

South Central Strategic Health Authority has now been abolished but a new national body - Public Health England - has been set up and will continue with the SHA’s plans to fluoridate local drinking water. Ignoring both public opinion and the views of Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council, Public Health England have pledged to add hexafluorosilicic acid in 2014. Council leaders in Southampton and Hampshire have previously vowed to fight plans for fluoridation and to terminate a scheme if implemented – we hope that they keep to their word.

Plans to fluoridate the city’s water have hit a number of obstacles. Despite commencing preparations in 2007, the SHA was unable to establish a workable scheme by April this year when they were abolished.

We know there are major problems with the implementation of this unworkable scheme and that more public money has been wasted on yet another feasibility study (over £30,000) but still problems remain. HAF has always maintained that the scheme as originally envisaged was unworkable and the costings completely wrong! We have been proved right.

HAF has organised a public meeting on Saturday May 11th at 2pm in the Solent University Conference Centre, Southampton and are pleased that Aisling Fitzgibbon – The Girl Against Fluoride — has agreed to come and talk about her campaign and legal challenge in Ireland. Southern Ireland is the only country in Europe that practices mandatory water fluoridation. Despite health concerns — particularly alarming increases in the extent of dental fluorosis among children— the Irish Government continues to support enforced mass medication. “We are thrilled that Aisling is coming to Southampton to lend support to our campaign and we hope that as many people as possible attend on Saturday to learn about the problems caused by decades of water fluoridation” says HAF member Anna Peckham.

Aisling has attracted widespread publicity and national press coverage. “The Girl Against Fluoride” campaign was createdinAugust 2012 and kicked off with a publicity stunt at Kerry airport. Aisling bravely stripped to reveal a t-shirt which had these words printed on it: “Irish water contains toxic industrial waste” and the famous Get the F Out symbol. When the publicity photos were published, there was an amazing response and the campaign has gained support all over Ireland and beyond.

Professor Stephen Peckham will give an update on the local situation and recent changes to public health which provide new powers to local councils. We have also invited local City councillors in the hope that there will be some representatives to answer questions from the public. However, there seems to be a general unwillingness on the part of City councillors to actually face the public and many have returned “otherwise engaged” replies or not replied at all. HAF has a record for those interested in the response (or lack of) from their ward councillor. We need to know where our local representatives stand on this important issue.

There will be time for questions and discussion.

Before the meeting there will be a demonstration at 12.30 in Guildhall Square and the meeting will then take place at 2pm in the Solent University Conference Centre, Above Bar, Southampton.